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French diplomats go on strike

Thousands of French diplomats and foreign ministry staff members went on strike on Monday, slowing work at the country's far-flung foreign services and even shutting down some embassies and consulates in protest over proposed budget cuts.

The strike was the first of its kind for the stately Quai d'Orsay, as the ministry is known, and is a measure of the difficulty the French government faces in trying to trim its welfare-sodden budget. France has repeatedly breached its obligations under EU accords to keep the country's deficit below 3 percent of its gross domestic product.

The foreign ministry fields about 5,000 people in 154 embassies, 98 consulates and nearly 500 cultural offices and French-language schools around the world.

While its senior diplomats enjoy such perks as well-stocked wine cellars and grand homes, the rank-and-file complain that scrimping has eroded their effectiveness.

"After years and years of economizing that have hit this ministry, they're asking us to go further -- that is, to no longer have the means to do our job," Louis Dominici, the leader of the six-union syndicate leading the strike, said on French TV on Monday.

The proposed budget for next year, which was debated on Monday in the country's Senate, would cut the ministry's operating budget by nearly 2 percent, losing 116 jobs through attrition and trimming diplomatic housing allowances by US$24 million.

More than 100 ministry employees demonstrated in front of the Senate building late on Monday while Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin defended the budget against further cuts.

The extent of the 24-hour walkout on Monday varied according to the source.

The ministry said only that the labor action was observed "in varying proportions at practically all posts," while the ministry's leading union reported that 94 percent of ministry employees took part in it.

"We haven't actually counted people," said Roger Ferrari, the foreign ministry representative for the Unitary Union Federation, one of six unions involved.

He said half of the ministry's employees were on strike for the day.

Some did so in the most diplomatic of ways. Renaud Vignal, France's ambassador to Indonesia, declared himself on strike, though he went to work anyway.

But others stayed away in such numbers that their offices closed. The French embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was reported closed for at least part of the day, as was the country's consulate in the Belgian city of Liege.

The walkout brought derisive hoots from some critics of French foreign policy, which has been at odds with that of the US, and particularly over the war in Iraq.

"Here's one French strike we can wholeheartedly support," declared The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

"The world deserves -- nay, needs -- less French diplomacy," it said.
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